Things Aren't Always What They Seem
by Musical Ninja
Summary: Following after the events of "Target: Dragon Trainer". The riders find a girl on their beach, who claims that she lost her home to pirates. Astrid is distrustful her, and the fact that she hangs around with Hiccup a lot is not helping in the slightest. Can she be trusted, or is she hiding something? And let's not forget about overprotective Stoick. Based on Heather Report.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Dragons franchise. The franchise is the property of Dreamworks animation studios, Cartoon Network, and Netflix.

 **Author's Note:** This story is a follow-up to "Target: Dragon Trainer" and will take place during the two parter episode "Heather Report". There will be some similarities as well as differences.

* * *

 **The Mysterious Girl**

It had been almost a month since the Outcast invasion and Berk was just about back to normal. The dragons had returned, the armory was restocked with new weapons, and activity at the dragon training academy had resumed. As pleasant as things were on Berk again, there was one person who still felt that danger could strike at anytime; Chief Stoick the Vast. He remembered how badly Alvin wanted to capture Hiccup and was sure that he was not going to give up. So he took precautions. He insisted on Hiccup having an escort to and from the academy, he shadowed Hiccup during his evening flights as often as he could on the back of Thornado, a Thunderdrum that Hiccup helped train for him upon his request, and he set a curfew for Hiccup; he was to be home by sunset.

It annoyed Hiccup that his father was not letting him go anywhere on his own, but it was impossible to argue with Stoick because he was both the chief and his father. Nevertheless, Hiccup refused to let his father's overprotective nature get in the way of his duties at the Dragon Training Academy.

Today, the dragon riders were testing out their dragon's speed by having them take turns. It was currently Hiccup and Toothless' turn and they were flying exceptionally fast, as usual. They finally arrived at the academy and landed safely on the ground.

After the landing, Hiccup hopped off of Toothless and asked Fishlegs, "So, how'd we do?"

"Technically, you're still the fastest," Fishlegs explained, "But someone, and I won't mention who, is gaining significant ground."

"What?" Hiccup asked in surprise.

He looked at his fellow riders, trying to figure out which dragon was starting to match his dragon's speed. He knew it could not be Meatlug because it was impossible for a Gronkle to be as fast as a Night Fury. Barf and Belch were a possibility, however, the twins immediately denied that it was them. That only left one dragon, Stormfly. Hiccup's suspicions were confirmed by the smug look on Astrid's face.

"I don't understand," said Hiccup, "How can Toothless be getting slower?"

"He's not," said Fishlegs, "Stormfly's getting faster."

"Oh really? Is that so?" Hiccup asked suspiciously, "Anything you'd like to share, Astrid?"

"Let's just say I'm experimenting with what she eats," said Astrid, "And apparently, it's working. And making you mad."

To emphasize the point, Stormfly squawked and then burped fire. Suddenly, everyone heard a loud roar and looked over to see Snotlout and Hookfang flying into the academy. Snotlout appeared to be in a good mood because he was cheering as Hookfang flew.

Once Hookfang came to a halt and landed, Snotlout crossed his arms proudly and said, "You will not believe what I just found."

"A severed head?" Tuffnut guessed.

"Our cousin Lars?" Ruffnut guessed.

"Our cousin Lars' severed head?" Tuffnut guessed.

"Lars died?!" Fishlegs asked.

"Who said that?" Tuffnut asked.

"Um, excuse me," said Snotlout, getting everyone's attention, "Do you guys wanna see this, or not?"

"Will it take long?" Hiccup asked, "I have to be home by sunset."

In response, Snotlout laughed at Hiccup and said, "Check it out, guys. Little Hiccup is scared to be outside in the dark."

Snotlout continued to laugh while Hiccup glared at him. Finally, Hiccup knocked Snotlout off his saddle and made fall off his dragon and land in the dirt. Hiccup looked down at Snotlout and said, "The curfew was my dad's idea, not mine. And I'm not scared of the dark. And I'm certainly not scared to to stand up to you."

"Okay. I'm sorry," said Snotlout, getting back up. He dusted himself off and said, "If we leave now, we might get home before the sun sets all the way."

"Okay," said Hiccup, "Let's go see what it is you found."

Snotlout smiled and said, "Great! I found on Loki's beach. Follow me."

Snotlout led the way on Hookfang and the rest followed on their dragons. It was close to sunset by the time they reached the beach. Snotlout promised that it would not take long as they landed. After dismounting their dragons, Snotlout led his friends to a wrecked boat.

"Huh. A wrecked boat on Berk," said Tuffnut, "Yeah, there's something new."

"Just remember, I saw it first. So, it's mine," said Snotlout.

He then knelt down to the boat and motioned for his friends to follow. Hiccup knelt down next to Snotlout and crawled ahead with him while the others followed close behind. Their eyes went wide when they found a girl lying face down in the sand, unconscious. The girl had long black hair in a braid and wore a greyish-green long-sleeved shirt with a brown vest and some brown pants with brown boots. Attached to her belt was a hollow horn.

Tuffnut smiled and said, "Wow. Now I like the boat."

"Remember, I get to keep her," Snotlout reminded everyone.

Astrid glared at him and said, "Snotlout! It's a person!"

"I know, right!" Snotlout said, not getting Astrid's point, "How lucky is that?!"

Hiccup chose to ignore them and checked on the girl. He crawled closer to her shook her wrist lightly and said, "Hey. Hey, wake up."

The girl moaned a bit and Hiccup backed away a bit to give her some space. When she raised her head, everyone saw that her eyes were green and the boys found her to be quite attractive. The girl gasped and backed away in fear.

"It's okay," said Hiccup, attempting to calm the girl down, "We're friends."

The girl coughed and asked, "Do you have any water?"

"Sure," said Hiccup. He brought out a flask of water that he brought with him and held it out for her, "Here."

"Thank you," said the girl, taking the flask from Hiccup. She took a drink and then asked, "Where am I?"

"This is Berk," said Hiccup. He gestured to himself and his friends as he said, "I'm Hiccup. This is my cousin Snotlout, that's Tuffnut, and he's Fishlegs. The girls here are Astrid and Ruffnut, Tuffnut's twin sister."

"I'm Heather," said the girl, Heather.

Suddenly, Toothless forced his way past Hiccup and the others and sniffed Heather. Heather gasped in fear and backed away from the dragon.

Hiccup pushed Toothless back as he said to Heather, "Don't be afraid. He won't hurt you." Hiccup proceed to push Toothless outside. He motioned for Heather to follow and said, "Come on out. It's okay."

Hiccup eventually got Toothless outside, along with his friends. Heather followed close behind and watched in amazement as Hiccup got Toothless to sit down just by telling him to.

"How did you do that?" Heather asked.

"That? That's nothing. Watch this," Snotlout said, and then he looked at his dragon and shouted, "Hookfang! Get your big butt over here!" Hookfang looked up from where he was napping and stared at his rider for a moment before flying away. Embarrassed, Snotlout laughed and said, "He'll be back. Jokester." He leaned against the boat and said, "Just so you know, I'm the one who rescued you."

"Technically, Snotlout, Hiccup was the one who helped her," said Fishlegs, "All you did after you found her was fly to the academy and brag like you discovered a buried treasure."

"No, I didn't," Snotlout tried to lie. And then he grumbled, "Shut up, Fishface."

"Thank you for your help, Hiccup," said Heather.

"It was nothing," said Hiccup.

Heather smiled at Hiccup and he smiled back at her. Astrid then stepped forward and asked, "So, Heather, what happened to you?"

Heather frowned sadly as she explained, "My family and I were on our way home to our island when our boat was attacked by pirates."

"I wanna be a pirate," Tuffnut said, surprising his sister and his friends, "Or a fish cleaner. I'm still on the fence."

Everyone simply chose to ignore him and went back to Heather. "You were saying?" Astrid asked.

"They attacked our boat and took us back to our island, laying seige to it," Heather continued. She looked down in sorrow as she said, "I was able to escape, but my mother and father... they weren't so lucky."

"Stupid pirates!" Tuffnut said in anger, "Now I'm definitely being a fish cleaner."

"I took a boat and used it to sail away from the island," Heather concluded, "Unfortunately, I lost control while I sailed at night and the next thing I knew, I was waking up and saw Hiccup."

Hiccup put a sympathetic hand on Heather's shoulder and said, "Well, don't you worry, Heather. Everything's gonna be okay. My dad's the chief. We'll figure something out." Hiccup led her over to his dragon and said, "This is my bud, Toothless. Toothless, say hello to Heather."

Toothless approached Heather and sniffed her. Heather, in turn, flinched a little in surprise. She then noticed Toothless' saddle and the saddles on the other dragons and put two and two together.

"You ride dragons?" she asked.

"We sure do," said Hiccup, "Climb aboard. Flying on a dragon is the fastest way back to the village."

"Okay," said Heather as she tentatively climbed onto Toothless.

While Hiccup was talking to Heather, Astrid went back to look at the boat. Astrid could not quite put her finger on it, but something was not adding up. Figuring she was just being paranoid, Astrid shrugged and went to join her friends and return home. She saw Hiccup climb onto Toothless in front of Heather. Astrid walked over to Stormfly and climbed onto her as she prepared to take off.

"Hey, Hiccup, don't forget we're meeting tomorrow to work on our times," she said. Astrid smirked as she added, "Unless you want Stormfly to be the fastest one in the Book of Dragons."

Hiccup smirked back and said, "Yeah, that's definitely not gonna happen. We'll be there." He looked back at Heather and said, "Okay, hang on. Toothless is gonna be pretty fast."

Nervous, Heather wrapped her arms around Hiccup's waist. Hiccup blushed for a second and then told Toothless to fly. Astrid followed close behind, followed by the twins.

Fishlegs was about to take off when he heard Snotlout say, "Can I get a ride home from somebody?"

"Sure, Snotlout," said Fishlegs, "You can ride home with me on Meatlug."

"Thanks," said Snotlout. And then he grumbled, "Stupid Hookfang."

Snotlout climbed onto Meatlug behind Fishlegs, and Fishlegs had Meatlug take off. Together, the riders flew back to the just as the sun was setting. Along the way, Hookfang flew by Meatlug and helped Snotlout back onto his back.

* * *

By the time they arrived, the sun had just about set and Hiccup saw Stoick, Gobber, and Thornado outside his house. And Stoick was pacing while Thornado watched him in worry and Gobber tried to get him to calm down. They then spotted the kids flying towards them.

"See, Stoick?" Gobber asked, "Hiccup's fine."

"Hiccup, do you realize how late it is?" Stoick asked.

"Dad, the hasn't even set completely," said Hiccup, "And I wasn't alone. My friends were with me."

"I know, son. I just can't help but ever since-" Stoick said. He stopped in mid sentence when he noticed Heather on Toothless with Hiccup and asked, "Who's this?"

Hiccup got off of Toothless and explained, "Dad, this is Heather. Snotlout found her unconscious on the where her boat washed up and got wrecked. Heather, this is my father, Chief Stoick."

"Nice to meet you, sir," said Heather, climbing off of Toothless, "Your son was so kind to me."

"Nice to meet you too, Heather," said Stoick, "Now tell me, how did come to be here on Berk?"

Heather looked away sadly and said, "Pirates. They laid seige to my island and killed my parents. I got escaped them and sailed away on a boat. I lost control of the boat during the night and woke on the beach and saw Hiccup watching over me."

"I told her you could help in some way," said Hiccup.

"I'll do what I can," said Stoick. He turned to Heather and said, "Until then, Heather, you're more than welcome to stay at my house."

"I don't wanna impose," said Heather.

"It's no trouble at all. Really," said Stoick, "It's the duty of the chief to help those in need."

"Okay. If you insist," said Heather.

"Then it's settled," said Stoick, "You two come home with me."

"Don't forget our race tomorrow, Hiccup," said Astrid, preparing to head home with Stormfly.

"I won't," said Hiccup.

With that, the kids parted ways and headed home. Heather walked with Stoick to his house, Hiccup beside her. The whole walk, Heather glanced at Hiccup. One might think she might be developing a crush. However, you really looked into her eyes, you would see two things; fear and guilt.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And that was chapter 1. What did you folks think? Be honest.


End file.
